The BSG loves Big Booters and it cannot lie: Snowboard big air contest this weekend at Vail

The Boulder Snowboarding Group is singing the praises of Vail's big booters this Valentine's Day weekend, taking its BSG crew to the 20, 25, and 30-foot hits in Vail's Golden Peak Terrain Park for its Big Booter Lovin' snowboard big air competition.

The competition is open to all ages, with registration ($15) at 8:30am. To pre-register, visit www.bsgbigbooter.com

We caught up with Adam Schmidt, the Sir Mix-A-Lot of the BSG, to learn more about his MeetUp.com group (1,200+ strong as of this writing), this weekend's contest, and other upcoming BSG events.

What was the original idea behind the BSG?

I've been a snowboarder for about 14 years. I moved out here to chase the dream and was looking for some people to ride with, you know? I had been involved with a snowboarding MeetUp group back in New York, and I figured we could do it bigger and better out here, with the Rocky Mountains in our backyard.

Are you surprised by the scope of what it's become?

I never expected it! I was just hoping to find a couple of buddies to hit the hill with, and now it's grown to over 1,200 people. Some of our ride shares and carpools have turned into big bus trips, our happy hour meetups have turned into full-blown parties, and some of our riding sessions have turned into full blown competitions. We're now able to negotiate group discounts, pick and choose sponsors, all kinds of stuff. It's just continued to grow. This weekend at Vail is going to be the biggest competition we've done.


Tell me a bit about this weekend's event.

It's going to be those three booters right next to the halfpipe, the 20, the 25, and the 30-footers, and then the 13-foot quarterpipe at the bottom. We're going to utilize that whole course. We've got a DJ coming, all of our sponsors are coming out, and we're going to be out there all day. We've got some O-Matic Snowboards, a bunch of backcountry backpacks from Dakine, some Nomis outerwear, well over $1,000 worth of prizes going out for this one. Vail Resort on a holiday weekend? It's pretty big for us.

Where do you see it all headed?

Well, in the short term we have the Vail event this weekend, next week we have a Jackson Hole trip, and then some local trips and overnight stays, our usual parties, and another competition at Echo Mountain in April. And then from there I see everything just getting bigger. We're going to be doing more wax clinics and avalanche certifications, we're getting to where we have parties going every other week, and we're planning more movie premiers for next year. It's getting to where we always have something going on for our members. That's the way snowboarding goes: You just keep pushing yourself to go bigger and bigger.